Mixon tape now fight over open records

by Keaton Fox

NORMAN — Joe Mixon's criminal case is wrapped up with today's guilty plea. But the questions over the release of the video tape at the center of it all continue.This new state law, Senate Bill 2676, aims to clear up any confusion--- reading, that in regard to records, "law enforcement agencies shall make available for public inspection and copying."Senator David Holt wrote the law, but says he didn't know those two words would be so important.

Norman police refused to make copies of the tape available, saying the law doesn't say they had to. They allowed members of the media to look at the tape, but not make any copies."I don't even know that we need to say that, I thought that the intention of that was clear. That if you can look at it, you can copy it, especially in the day in age where we all have iPhones we're just one click away from copying a document," Holt said.Holt's new transparency law is set to go into effect Saturday, when it was widely believed the tape would be have to be released to comply with the law."It was already the state of the law, that you could copy videos, and documents, but this statue change simply made it abundantly clear," Holt said.But now that the criminal case is over, there's no clear indication from the city of Norman the tape will ever be released.Tonight, Pickleman's the bar at the center of the incident, said they destroyed the tape after it was returned to them from law enforcement.Holt says it flies in the face of his new measure.Attorneys for the city of Norman say they have a copy, after they were threatened with a lawsuit, but say that copy is not subject to release under open records laws.